That's a crock of poop. Premarital implies that the intent was marriage, and in most cases, folks are just fornicating.

Link (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16287113/?GT1=8816)

Even grandma had premarital sex, survey finds
Americans weren't any more chaste in the past, researchers report
MSNBC.COM SPECIAL REPORT

Updated: 6:57 p.m. CT Dec 19, 2006
NEW YORK - More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.

“This is reality-check research,” said the study’s author, Lawrence Finer. “Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades.”

Finer is a research director at the Guttmacher Institute, a private New York-based think tank that studies sexual and reproductive issues and which disagrees with government-funded programs that rely primarily on abstinence-only teachings. The study, released Tuesday, appears in the new issue of Public Health Reports.

The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people — about 33,000 of them women — in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer’s analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.

Even among a subgroup of those who abstained from sex until at least age 20, four-fifths had had premarital sex by age 44, the study found.

Sex stable since the '50s
Finer said the likelihood of Americans having sex before marriage has remained stable since the 1950s, though people now wait longer to get married and thus are sexually active as singles for extensive periods.

The study found women virtually as likely as men to engage in premarital sex, even those born decades ago. Among women born between 1950 and 1978, at least 91 percent had had premarital sex by age 30, he said, while among those born in the 1940s, 88 percent had done so by age 44.

“The data clearly show that the majority of older teens and adults have already had sex before marriage, which calls into question the federal government’s funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for 12- to 29-year-olds,” Finer said.

Under the Bush administration, such programs have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.

“It would be more effective,” Finer said, “to provide young people with the skills and information they need to be safe once they become sexually active — which nearly everyone eventually will.”

Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, defended the abstinence-only approach for teenagers.

“One of its values is to help young people delay the onset of sexual activity,” he said. “The longer one delays, the fewer lifetime sex partners they have, and the less the risk of contracting sexually transmitted disease.”

He insisted there was no federal mission against premarital sex among adults.

“Absolutely not,” Horn said. “The Bush administration does not believe the government should be regulating or stigmatizing the behavior of adults.”

Horn said he found the high percentages of premarital sex cited in the study to be plausible, and expressed hope that society would not look askance at the small minority that chooses to remain abstinent before marriage.

However, Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, a conservative group which strongly supports abstinence-only education, said she was skeptical of the findings.

“Any time I see numbers that high, I’m a little suspicious,” she said. “The numbers are too pat.”

MichaelH

12-20-2006, 01:24 PM

People are having s e x before marriage? :hmmm:

'Hamas' Jenkins

12-20-2006, 01:25 PM

This really isn't new. This was broken about 50 years ago in the Kinsey report. And premarital can imply more than one thing, "before" marriage temporally, not that they were saving themselves for it.

NewChief

12-20-2006, 01:26 PM

However, Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America, a conservative group which strongly supports abstinence-only education, said she was skeptical of the findings.

“Any time I see numbers that high, I’m a little suspicious,” she said. “The numbers are too pat.”

Odds are that Ms. Crouse got it on before marriage, too.

Mr. Kotter

12-20-2006, 01:28 PM

Premarital, to my way of thinking, doesn't limit it to one's future wife....if you sleep around, before finding Ms. Right....but don't have sex with her until after you are married....you've still had premarital sex.

I do think the 90% could be right, although I do think it's probably a tad high.....

dirk digler

12-20-2006, 01:37 PM

Premarital, to my way of thinking, doesn't limit it to one's future wife....if you sleep around, before finding Ms. Right....but don't have sex with her until after you are married....you've still had premarital sex.

I do think the 90% could be right, although I do think it's probably a tad high.....

I would like to know who the 10% losers are. Oh I know one..gochiefs. :)

sedated

12-20-2006, 01:39 PM

marriage?

I won't wait past the fourth date.

luv

12-20-2006, 01:41 PM

What if there's someone who's divorced, they never had sex outside of that marriage, and they are getting ready to get married again? Would that be considered premarital? They had sex before their second marriage, but never outside of wedlock.

Yes, I can overthink just about any topic.

siberian khatru

12-20-2006, 01:43 PM

Interesting how it drops to 4 in 10 having postmarital sex.

Sully

12-20-2006, 01:46 PM

I've never thought premarital connoted that it was with one you planned to marry.
Weird how different people interpret things.

Mr. Laz

12-20-2006, 01:48 PM

Interesting how it drops to 4 in 10 having postmarital sex.
ROFL

Bob Dole

12-20-2006, 02:30 PM

marriage?

I won't wait past the fourth date.

You're old-fashioned.

Why wait past the second?

Pitt Gorilla

12-20-2006, 02:58 PM

You're old-fashioned.

Why wait past the second?Did she order the lobster?

jjjayb

12-20-2006, 03:08 PM

I like how they say that sex patterns haven't changed since the 40's to debunk abstinence programs, yet they showed no figures for pre-marital sex for people under the age of 18. I'm sure there would be a huge difference between that number in the 40's and that number now. Aren't most abstinence programs aimed at teens? You'd think they'd show the statistics on teens in this report. Or did those numbers not line up with their agenda? :rolleyes:

Kerberos

12-20-2006, 03:08 PM

Did she order the lobster?

And a brand new lighter.

Pitt Gorilla

12-20-2006, 03:13 PM

I'm sure there would be a huge difference between that number in the 40's and that number now. I'd assume that you have stats to back up this statement as well.

chagrin

12-20-2006, 03:17 PM

marriage?

I won't wait past the fourth date.

Accoridng to your previous thread, you obviously do not, heh :p

(sorry didn't mean to offend you dude)

Anyong Bluth

12-20-2006, 03:30 PM

start a poll, anyone that wants to chime in that they were a virgin until they were married feel free to speak up.

I don't think 90% is absurd. People have been doing it- period. Society just didn't reflect what was going on in the media so there was a 'guise of moral chastity .

sedated

12-20-2006, 03:46 PM

(sorry didn't mean to offend you dude)

:)

ChiefsCountry

12-20-2006, 04:31 PM

Alot of people wouldn't admit that they have so 90% sounds about right.